Charge dynamics in molecular junctions: Nonequilibrium Green's function approach made fast

Abstract

Real-time Green's function simulations of molecular junctions (open quantum systems) are typically performed by solving the Kadanoff-Baym equations (KBE). The KBE, however, impose a serious limitation on the maximum propagation time due to the large memory storage needed. In this work we propose a simplified Green's function approach based on the generalized Kadanoff-Baym ansatz (GKBA) to overcome the KBE limitation on time, significantly speed up the calculations, and yet stay close to the KBE results. This is achieved through a twofold advance: First, we show how to make the GKBA work in open systems and then construct a suitable quasiparticle propagator that includes correlation effects in a diagrammatic fashion. We also provide evidence that our GKBA scheme, although already in good agreement with the KBE approach, can be further improved without increasing the computational cost.